The7thLain Posted August 4, 2020 Posted August 4, 2020 (edited) Standard Application Ckey/BYOND Username: TheBurninSherman Position Being Applied For: Human Lore Developer Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? I have, yes. Past Experiences/Knowledge: I’ve been playing on the Aurora for a little over a year now, and in my time there Human has been my most played race, with IPC coming in second and Tajaran and Vaurca at a distant third and fourth respectively. For the entirety of my play, the most important word to me above all others when describing my roleplay has been authenticity. However, in order to really portray characters less as characters, and more as real, believable people, it has required that I bring myself to be intimately familiar with the feel of the lore in the game, along with the finer details of where my characters are from. As a result, I have become knowledgeable on various corners of the human and synthetic lore, either through my direct research of them or through asking the respective lore staff for clarification and information on things that seem hazy to me. I hope that in a developer position, I will only learn more, either through the things I create myself or through inquiry and collaboration with the Human Lore team or other lore teams as they exist now. Examples of Past Work: I’ve never written lore for a greater community, however, I have built various worlds in pre-existing systems like D&D, Pathfinder, and Lancer for tabletop/online roleplay over the past four years. In terms of writing and writing ability, I have been an avid writer for most of my life since my early teens and have very much prided myself on my ability to write both informative and compelling works. I hope that I will only improve in that regard, and that a Lore Dev position would be a way for me to make things interesting and engaging for people within the community in regards to the Human lore, while also improving my own writing abilities from the feedback I would receive, either from the lore team or the community as a whole. Additional Comments: I want to thank all of my friends, supporters, and people who I consider to be mentors in the community for encouraging me to go through with this application. Without your help and confidence in me, I don’t know if I would have gone forwards and applied for this position. Position Specific Questions 1. Three or more themes, events, locations, people, or anything which constitute your favorite parts about human lore, and why they are your favorites. Spoiler 1a. New Hai Phong My first love in Human Lore as well as in Aurora Lore in its entirety is New Hai Phong. The culture and very integrated, unique nature of the planet and its people have captured my imagination since I began playing. My psych and recently Chief Medical Officer who I’ve been playing for almost a year now is from there for that reason. The planet is so unique amongst the various solarian worlds. This idea of a heavily industrialised, overcrowded society that is still united and values things like camaraderie and family, while still having unique offshoots in the various blockfams about the planet is just so fascinating to me. I have always had a soft spot for the planet, and I hope that as a loredev I could do it justice going forwards for how much I love it and love the society it holds. I think that New Hai Phong could be a wonderful place that could be seriously changed and altered with the times, as we have a phoron shortage and what NanoTrasen is to Biesel, Hephaestus is to New Hai Phong. As an emphasis on society however, I think that it is very easy to try and make a nation or planet in a sci-fi setting and be influenced too much by already existing cultures, to the point where it just becomes “x culture, but in space.” New Hai Phong instead, takes an already existing series of cultures in a geographic area, primarily the various cultures of Indochina and South China, the most prominent being the Vietnamese, and evolves that culture to the setting and the times in which it finds itself. Other planets, like Mictlan try to do this also, but the amount of very noticeable societal detail and uniqueness that NHP gives to me as a player, makes me feel like New Hai Phong is special. I am quite personally biased to loving the NHP lore and the potential it gives to characters, but I appreciate it for not only what it is, but how it was done, taking a series of preexisting cultures and expertly making them have their roots still visible, but still very different and unique from their Earth equivalents. 1b. Offworlders and their Creative Potential Offworlders are odd in the best way. They’re typically styled as these somewhat technologically stagnant space faring nomads or station dwellers who are very much out of their element anywhere that gravity is close to normal. Aside from their odd biology and the mechanics that represent it in game however, offworlders are so, so much more. They are a group of people that originated from really, everywhere on the old earth and have gone on to forge their own societies, free of external interference in some cases, created their own religion and traditions in the case of the scarabs, and have gone on to expand and make their homes in perhaps some of the most inhospitable places imaginable like directly next to active suns, in the case of the Star-Men. This hardy, can-do sort of people that have spread all across the human frontier and even in parts of more civilised space, like the various offworlder populations living in space stations in the Eridani Corporate Fed, is inspiring and just rife for more exploration. However, there is not tons written on them and their societies, save for the Scarabs. The culture section for the entire offworlder race on their wiki page is only 590 words long. For a comparison and example, the Tajaran culture section on their wiki page is 3372 words long, with various other articles linking to more specific details in the cultural subtopics. Avoiding bloat is key, but there are aspects that we could and should shed more light on in regards to offworlders. I know that much of the sparseness is to leave things open ended for players but, I think that developing and fleshing offworlders out and speaking to the various differences and unique possibilities for societies and traditions across the offworlder spectrum could be a good move. Because, as for right now, most offworlder societies aside from the Scarabs or other micropopulations in the frontier or Eridani are undocumented aside from a few words, or if they are lucky, a sentence in a location-related article. I love the premise of off-worlders and adore their society and the potential for creativity they have, as well as the already existing Scarab fleets, but what I also see is not just that. I see a huge opportunity for creativity to be applied to interesting and meaningful content that could be explored by the community. 1c. The Crumbling and Fading Nature of SolGov Conflict breeds opportunity, and opportunity breeds conflict. As the Solar Alliance, while still the unquestionable military superpower in Human space and arguably the Orion Spur as a whole, they are slowly collapsing under their own weight. This in itself, is an opportunity to create something entirely new, and it pushes the development of all lore across the spur, not just Human-specific lore. As the Alliance fades away, it gives other nations and also, places within the alliance as a whole, more room to develop and assert themselves. Dominia, the Coalition, Elyra, even smaller alien nations like the Hegemony or the PRA, it gives these countries more room to make advances, start events, and move the story along. The dichotomy of a collapsing authoritarian state also gives places within the alliance that may have been neglected in terms of content before, places like Mictlan, Jupiter, or Silversun, all planets with rather sparse pages and by proxy limited canon content, room to grow and to be developed more in accordance with current happenings. Similarly, perhaps something could be undertaken in Tau Ceti space, with the phoron shortage giving New Gibson, a planet with painfully little written on it, some time in the spotlight to develop. I could maybe even picture an event where the crew goes to New Gibson for some NT related task or occasion. The collapse of the SolGov would also allow for growing tensions, fighting among galactic powers, and as such I think those outside factors could also push and influence character interactions on the Aurora for humans in the same way the Second Adhomain Civil War did for Tajarans. This collapsing juggernaut of the Solarian Alliance is a goldmine, not just for future lore and development of locations and people, but also for very real and palpable RP on the NSS Aurora itself. As a lore Dev, I would want to keep this theme constant in my human lore going forwards, while also promoting reasonable and non-allegorical opposition in the SolGov itself. 2. Three of the same which constitute your least favorite or rather, most hated parts of human lore, and why you don't like them. Spoiler 2a. The Complete Lack of Defined History and Events in Humanity’s Past Something that has stuck with me and consistently left me wanting more, almost to a point of annoyance, is the information gap in the human lore from the 21st to 23rd centuries. The canon justification for this is because of a format incompatibility issue, but this also a huge excuse for just not writing the journey and creation of human history into the game. We have entire centuries passed by in little more than sentences on the human lore timeline, including some of the most important events in the canon history of Humanity. There is next to nothing penned on the First Interstellar War aside from a few dates on a timeline, the mention of a guerilla war fought by the CoC, and the Siege of Xansan. This war created the human political landscape and began the trend of fading solarian power. In the Elyra article’s exceptionally tiny history section, it is also implied that this war was the impetus for that country’s foundation as well, spurred on by General Abd Al-Hamid. This is another event that is grossly under documented and could use a lot of improvement. How exactly did Elyra come to be? Who was General Adb Al-Hamid? If the Interstellar War gave an entire country the inspiration and idea for independence, while also guaranteeing it to another, why don’t we know more about it? The Skrell have their incident with Glorsh documented, as do the Tajarans have both of their civil wars explained in detail, and the Unathi have an entire article on the Contact War. All of these conflicts or incidents are tied very, very closely to their species, as for many, they are in living memory. While the First Interstellar War is not, its effects are, so why then is there nothing written on what exactly happened in the war and what its direct consequences were, outside of a brief mention in a few sentences in a timeline article? If you need a canon justification, humanity can have a discovery moment similar to how the Skrell did not so long ago, however, instead of the vaults opening up, it could be some scientist somewhere is finally able to decode all sorts of archaic formats, and Humanity can get better details and a better understanding of who they are and where they come from. I feel that it would put everything into context more and expand the feeling of current human countries as true nations, and give the players of characters from those nations, more perspective on who they are and how they should act on the station itself. I do not want to have entire centuries of human lore inaccessible to me because of a one-sentence explanation. 2b. Dominia as an Enabler Dominian lore has gone through an upheaval of changes recently, and I will first say that they are a noted improvement over what was there before. The Empire is no longer canonically filled with religiously fanatical warmongering honour-bound totalitarian space eugenicists with a seemingly nonsensical hatred of IPC’s and worrying white supremacist undertones, but it is still flawed in my opinion, not for what it is in concept, but for the kind of interactions it enables in practice. Dominians when played directly to the edicts and religious fanfare and nationalism and familial favouritism with no room for anything else, are perhaps the most boring, dry, insipid, and lifeless characters on the station without question. They drain the life and dynamism out of any interaction they nest themselves in and are often troublemakers for the excuse of “muh honour.” This can be seen as a problem with the players, just not really sticking to the lore or just being bad at roleplay, however, there can be something done from the top to curb this. Dominia has this image and impression about it that makes it so a Dominian character has to be played in a certain way, and anything else is just not sticking to the mold of being a Domininan. I think that at least giving availability to a more moderate option, or elaborating on the already existing more moderate and liberal forces either within the Empire or the Tribunal as a faith itself, would benefit Dominian players by giving them more variety to source from in their lore. Elaborating on the Dominian underclass could do this, as could a further explanation of Dominain religious sects or groups within the Tribunal. Not every person in a country is going to be a devout, fanatical, and zealous, honour-bound warrior, its just not believable even with a life debt-centred citizenship system. In theocracies that exist now and have existed throughout history, a constant struggle in those nations is bringing the faith of the ruling force and its religious power in government, to terms with the every-day, more secular, cultural, ethnic, or even personal parts of life. Dominia needs this to be less of a caricature of a country that it often appears to be. The work that has been done on its past and present recently by the Human lore team, I think is wonderful progress and puts the country into a more respectable, less allegorical light, something that the Necropolis rebrand to Zavodskoi helped in as well. This does not change the fact that it still needs improvement and change to bring it to life. Dominia should be a country that feels like it could be a real place, as it's treated in game, but as it stands now, the Empire speaks to me only as an outlandish concept that would only work on paper. There are people who have Dominian characters and exercise restraint and thought, and do really feel as if they are these honourable, religiously guided people, but they are in the minority. A change in lore to flesh out Dominian society and make it more believable as a nation, I think, could inform and inspire more players to play Dominians in this more respectable and less stereotypical fashion. I like Dominia, I want it to get the respect it deserves from the player base, but in order to do that, it needs to change a little more. Sidepoint: This is too small to make it a point on its own, but Elyra could also use a bit more fleshing out societally and historically. As it stands now its almost too perfect, or rather, perfect without an explanation, as a nation whose only issues are external, being the Hegemony, shaky relations with megacorps, and the looming threat of the Lii’dra. Their history section is also painfully small, and often leads me asking myself, just how did Elyra get to be as nice as it is? History could be added whenever, and Elyra, being an owner of Phoron could have some interesting and dynamic conflicts arise within it as the current shortage worsens. I would wish to stay away from the previous attempts at giving Elyra internal conflict, those being not so subtle strawmen for the modern day problems of Islamic fundamentalism and radicalism in the Middle East while also just not going for the Eridani and Biesel response of making megacorps the cause of conflict in the country. 2c. The Lack of Dynamism and Gravitase in SolGov The Solar Alliance, as I have stated before, is a goldmine for potential content both on and off the station. This idea of a collapsing juggernaut imploding in upon itself, is a wonderful plot device for telling stories and giving us perspective on the game and its universe. I understand this is the feel or theme of the SolGov, but it doesn’t often show itself on the wiki or in the news articles. We know that events have happened that have weakened SolGov, the Frost incursion, losing the interstellar war, ceding more of its power to megacorporations, the rise and fall of ATLAS, which as an aside, I am quite pleased that ATLAS is gone it was very lazy from a writing standpoint in my opinion. This all has happened, and people know it has happened, but how is it affecting Solar and galactic society as a whole? The current arc of King of the World is supposedly about the final decline of SolGov, and while I think that is going to be quite intriguing to help write in and help move along, assuming I get the developer position, I think that there has not been really enough done before hand in giving context to the Solar Alliance’s decline. How does the looming decline and implosion and all its prior symptoms affect Solar society? How does it differ across Solar society? Is the resulting turmoil going to affect Silversun in the same way as it would say, New Hai Phong or perhaps Eridani? I think that more should be done in the lore as it exists now, before the collapse begins, to really give context and more gravity to the situation of the Solar Alliance and its impending fall or transformation. The way that it seems now, is that, we do indeed have small events in regards to the phoron shortage, but, supposedly, the Alliance has been in decline for decades at this point. How can we portray that across Solarian society, without just saying that the Solar Navy was defeated by x power in y skirmish? We need to give an impression to the players just how much tension and how close SolGov is to falling apart, before it actually does fall apart. Countries do not collapse overnight, and while I think it is great that we have done things to give the feeling of this impending downfall of SolGov, I think that more needs to be done to tangibly portray it in the lore, and by proxy, in the RP of the players who read the lore. The authenticity of the Solarian Alliance’s collapse is going to be the central element of the upcoming chapter, and so, because of that and the importance it holds, I think that more needs to be done as a prelude to it in regards to Solar society on a region-by-region level, or in its entirety. Right now a collapse works on a level of seeing it as a logical progression, but then again, we have the lens of being removed from the universe and functionally omnipotent. There needs to be more in-universe information to give characters an idea of just how tense things are now and are going to be in the Alliance prior to its final act, otherwise I couldn’t help but think that the collapse in itself would be forced or seem jarring from an ICly perspective without tangible repercussions that would affect every-day life in Solarian space. Not doing so could result in the lore team needing to play catch-up to build tension after the collapse has begun instead of focusing on the collapse itself. I think now is a wonderful time to begin doing this process of setting the stage more adequately for the show. 2d. That Map. I really, really, really hate that map. You know the one. This is only a small point and more me nitpicking than anything else but its too unrelated to the other topics to leave as a sidenote in those topics. The current map of Earth and its various provinces is an eyesore and it gives me conniptions that firstly, something so basic and flawed like that could even be passed, and secondly, that it is still the canonical map of Earth according to the wiki, even after ATLAS has lost its power. It may be minor, literally a single image, and this is more of a complaint than a thought out critique, however, as Hooman Lore Dev, I will fix the fucking Earth map. 3. What your main objectives as human lore developer would be. Spoiler 3a. Modernisation and Foresight to King of the World I want to work with the Human lore team and if prudent, other galactic lore teams in updating all human lore to reflect the strenuous times of current events so that the lore team doesn’t have to play catch-up later on and make things feel unnecessarily forced. This would also be a good time to perhaps give more lore in general to some of the more neglected planets in Sol, namely Mictlan, Jupiter, and Silversun. This could also perhaps be an opportune time to give New Gibson some attention. As the industrial hub of Tau Ceti, it is going to be very much changed by the phoron crisis, and could be a good catalyst to elaborate on New Gibsonite society as a whole, because currently its wiki page is painfully small. Putting these societies in the spotlight as a result of megacorporation actions could also strike a strong balance between the nature of megacorporations and their effect on life and the impending collapse of the Solarian Alliance. 3b. Addition of History and Definition of Key Human Galactic Events We should give the current events in which we find ourselves context. I want to give humanity the detailed or at least, more informative look on history than it already has and to put it on par with other species in that respect, as right now, some of the most important events in humanity’s galactic history are very ill defined. This means that the history lore gives players no choice but to headcanon these events, and things so important as the Interstellar War or Founding of Elyra should not be left up to chance and interpretation like that. They need to be written down. Defining the consequences of the First Interstellar War could also play into the hands of my first priority, using it as a starting point for when SolGov started to decline and build it up from there. This could also be a way to incorporate and improve on the current offworlder lore, giving their societies a bigger history and a greater societal context for players to pick and choose from while also keeping their free spirits and freedom of creation at the liberty of the creator. 3c. The Dominian Rabbit Hole and Elyra I want to continue updating Dominia to bring it to a country that is less cartoonish and more serious to its principles, while also giving Dominian players the opportunity to have more variety in their roleplay should they choose to take it. I want to do this by expanding on Dominian society and making it seem less like everyone is a religiously zealous warrior, as such is just. . . Not sustainable nor realistic. I’d also like to work with the Unathi lore team for this and develop the Unathi presence in Dominia more, as Dominia finds itself in a unique position being a Human society that is not just welcoming to aliens, but has them as an integral part of a very rigid and hierarchical society. Dominia has improved greatly as of late, but it still needs love to get to where it should be and garner the respect it deserves. As for Elyra, its in an odd spot. Some may consider its utopian nature to be an innate flaw, however, I don't necessarily think so, as in a society that is perfect, literally anything can go wrong and change the entire nature of things. I think that with the upcoming chapter/arc would be a good time to adjust Elyra to the current events, and make Elyra a more convincing and dynamic place than the rather one note utopian phoron-having republic it appears to be now. 3d. Continuing to Promote and Create New Ideas with the Human Lore Team As a lore developer, I want to improve and tweak our current lore as I have indicated above, but I also want to get new ideas out there and keep expanding the universe of humanity as not just as it exists now, but as it could in the future. Two of our most recent additions to the Human Lore, Crosk in the Frontier and Neith in Epsilon Eridani are wonderful, and I think they are fresh new additions to the current canon and world we have in the Orion Spur. I want to not just fix things that I and my team believe are unhealthy, but also bring new ideas and possibilities to the game and its universe through innovation, whether they be from myself with the support of my team, or my team members with my support. I do not want things to grow stale, and I think that with the NBT on the horison, there is a massive opportunity for new places, people, and ideas to be created. 3e. Fix the map Self-explanatory. I will righteously smite the current Earth map from the face of the spur and replace it with something better that my team and I will create, or perhaps simply revert to the old, pre-ATLAS map. Anything is an improvement over the current nonsensical monochromatic topsy-turvy ass-backwards abomination that rests on the Earth wiki page right now. EDIT: 2020-08-11 The map is not just the map, it is an example of and allegory to much of the old lore we still have in place around Solar space. Edited August 11, 2020 by TheBurninSherman Added clarification on point 3e.
MattAtlas Posted August 4, 2020 Posted August 4, 2020 (edited) I can wholeheartedly throw my weight behind you being the next loredev, so, I'll completely endorse this app. Although being a bartender with you in game is like playing competitive esports instead of a chill experience, you're a very chill man and I have no doubts you're going to be good for the task. I know you'll be able to work with everyone in the lore team and I also know you'll do wonderfully. I'd however feel bad if I left off without asking you some questions. So, I'm going to leave one boring, but perhaps insightful one. What exactly do you think makes a good character? For instance, you mention how you like New Hai Phong, but what makes it good or unique for characters in your opinion? At the same time, do you think there are certain places that specifically lack this "spice" element? A few last things. I really really agree with your outlook on Elyra/Dominia. Dominia itself is home to a pretty bad stereotype that has been cultured by players and I hope to see you unearth it and toss it in the garbage. They desperately need more liberal options and in general a liberalization of possible character concepts. Edited August 4, 2020 by MattAtlas
Roostercat Posted August 4, 2020 Posted August 4, 2020 I can definitely agree with pretty much all of the points Sherman brought up, and can also back up the fact that they would definitely be a valuable lore team member. The points on Dominia are the part I want to see change with the most, as it does seem that most Dominian players follow a sort of template to being a religious ass who cause trouble just because. Seeing that change would be lovely, because I do very much like the concept of Dominia as a whole. However, like Matt, I feel like asking a question. So, that question is: What would you change about Dominia first?
The7thLain Posted August 4, 2020 Author Posted August 4, 2020 (edited) 46 minutes ago, MattAtlas said: What exactly do you think makes a good character? For instance, you mention how you like New Hai Phong, but what makes it good or unique for characters in your opinion? At the same time, do you think there are certain places that specifically lack this "spice" element? I believe the key to making a good character does not rest in their personality or their appearance or even job, but the authenticity with which they play their character as a person. I appreciate depth and uniqueness in characters, ones that are distinctive from others around them, either through subtle differences and habits, or through capitalising on unqiue and diverse settings. Through taking a setting that is already well made and interesting, one that you can really believe could be a real place even with its various flaws, you can build a character with these rich influences and make them authentic to not just who they are and what they are like, but where they are from and the influences that they have from there. I think that there are places that do lack this element of "spice," as you explained, but not really because of bad writing, as the loreteam has cleaned up a lot of things lately, but instead because of a lack of content. Places that come to mind are Mictlan, the Techno Conglomerate Fleet, and to a lesser extent, Elyra. Mictlan has really one characteristic culturally, which is a reliance on resourcefulness and recycling. This is very broad, and I'd like to see the lore of this planet improved on to add onto this. There are other things, traditions like tattoos and masks as well, but we do not have any real representation of them in the game as it exists currently. The Techno Conglomerate fleet in the frontier has approximately six paragraphs of lore written on it. Six. How does this fleet of offworlders differ from the Scarab fleets aside from religion and business practices? What makes them really distinctive as a place to be from? How can you make a character who has an identity tied to that place when there is so little on it? Its similar to New Gibson. I see New Gibson as a Tau Ceti version of Himeo with Vaurca and without the syndicalism and hatred of Hephaestus. They're cold, an industrial hub. That's really it in terms of Human Lore content. By making a setting unique and real, without falling into the trap of "X culture, but in space," or "y planet, but its owned by this megacorp," or "another tourism planet with z as its gimmick," it gives spice to a setting and better enables a player to make an authentic, compelling, and good character from a place that is wonderful in the variety it holds from other places. Edited August 4, 2020 by TheBurninSherman
The7thLain Posted August 4, 2020 Author Posted August 4, 2020 (edited) 57 minutes ago, Roostercat said: What would you change about Dominia first? Currently, I would want to expand on the already existing elements of the more liberal or at least different sects from the extant Jak'akh and Kael'kah Morozian interpretations. I would consult with the human lore team as well for other solutions, as ultimately, this is about changing a stereotypical culture that shouldn't really be around in the first place, because nuance is very much a thing in Dominia as it exits now. Giving more options, however, to that nuance can encourage people to explore new possibilities in their RP and drop the wrong-spirited ways of playing to Dominian lore without people needing to bwoink players because "Hey ur not sticking to lore." Instead of telling the playerbase what they want and putting them on blast for admittedly poor rp, that isn't a way to get through to them and wouldn't do anything aside from antagonise people who are just trying to RP, we should instead show them why it might be fun to explore what we have or are working on as a new avenue for Dominian characters. Dominia has been changed a lot recently, so gradual implementation will be needed to see the full effect of the changes themselves before we add anything else. Edited August 4, 2020 by TheBurninSherman
niennab Posted August 5, 2020 Posted August 5, 2020 I am really glad you applied and I wholeheartedly support your application. You are incredibly creative, amicable, level headed and I am certain you would be able to navigate through the conflicts that can come with being a lore maintainer. I think it's crucial to just have someone on the team who is professional, easy to work with and a pleasure to have around and I personally believe you fit all of those definitions. Now for some questions. The human team has, in my opinion, far more work than any of the other lore teams. As such, do you believe you will be able to navigate it with a healthy work/life balance? The role can sometimes be emotionally draining. Do you believe you can navigate the stresses or any burn out that may happen?
The7thLain Posted August 5, 2020 Author Posted August 5, 2020 7 minutes ago, niennab said: The human team has, in my opinion, far more work than any of the other lore teams. As such, do you believe you will be able to navigate it with a healthy work/life balance? In my opinion, navigating a work-life balance is relative to the individual, but also, in this case, can be mitigated some in terms of work. We exist in a lore team for a reason, to be able to use teamwork and collective decision making and work as a strength and asset for all parties involved. I have a faith not just in myself, but in the current human lore team as the times I have spoken with them they seem more than committed and understanding of real-life circumstances. Because of this, I believe that through the use of teamwork and communication as well as being very aware of my own limitations and mitigating factors, I can indeed strike a good work-life balance. If it is something I cannot handle, I will have no qualms in resigning from the position for the good of myself, the lore team, and the lore of the game as a whole. I do not want to be a lame duck of a loredev who just occupies a slot and makes no contributions either directly from my own creation or in the form of input to the ideas of people that I work with. 14 minutes ago, niennab said: The role can sometimes be emotionally draining. Do you believe you can navigate the stresses or any burn out that may happen? When I made the application here, I made it not just as an application for the fun and exciting parts about lore like improving things, making new things, and innovating systems, but also for the less desirable parts of the position. This is a responsibility as much as it is a position of creative expansion and freedom. Because of this, being a :ore Dev is not just a thing that I see as a thing for myself, but also as me being as a part of a greater community and universe, both of which I have a love and appreciation for despite their shortcomings. I know that love can go only so far, which is why I feel like there is also a very strong sense of duty, dedication, and temperance to the community at large that comes with a position that can garner such influence over the game and its universe. There will be conflict over lore, either between different lore teams or within the human lore team itself. However, I feel that investing myself in what the Lore Dev has as a responsibility for the betterment of the community and its lore, while combining it with the already large love and respect I feel for the Aurora and what it means to me, I can help mitigate the stress and burnout I will experience. I have no doubt there will be times that I perhaps doubt myself or are stressed out of my mind, or have writer's block or am at odds with others in the community, but I also have no doubt that I will be able to manage this through a dedication to the lore and community that I really do have a special place in my heart for. I have a wonderful few friends I have made here that I can communicate with and bounce ideas off of either in a professional, server-affairs context or in a more casual, friendly way. With these wonderful people, people who have supported me since I have started playing over a year ago, and through my own external support systems, I think I can have an outlet for the troubles I will face. If I cannot take the heat from the position and if my respect for the position I hold, love for the community I play in, and support systems cannot help me overcome stress and burnout enough, I will accept this as a reality and take a break or resign if I need to in order to uphold my job to the community and obligation to myself for personal health and wellness.
Snakebittenn Posted August 5, 2020 Posted August 5, 2020 How important is working with other races to you? Some of the past human lore developers have mostly failed to really work with xeno writers on xeno/human relations and whatnot. This includes IPCs. Do you have any plans for this?
The7thLain Posted August 5, 2020 Author Posted August 5, 2020 3 hours ago, Snakebittenn said: How important is working with other races to you? Some of the past human lore developers have mostly failed to really work with xeno writers on xeno/human relations and whatnot. This includes IPCs. Do you have any plans for this? While I think it may sometimes be difficult to continuously involve other races and their lore teams in work, simply for the fact that human lore does have a lot to deal with because of its much larger purview than some other races, I very much want to work with the other races. The two that are on my mind most are IPC and Unathi. Positronics for the reason that Human and IPC lore are by their nature, incredibly intertwined and integrated with one another, since humans made the current iteration of IPCs and it is under Human societies almost exclusively that most IPCs live, and Unathi because of their involvement with Dominia and potential source of cooperation and insight in further improving Dominian lore. I would love to work with other lore teams as well, if prudent, as cooperation and integration is the best way to pursue development in galactic lore at large, be it with the two teams I have expressed interest in above or any other should the situation, events, or lore projects call for it.
Scheveningen Posted August 9, 2020 Posted August 9, 2020 1. Regarding history. While I consider writing history to be significant to establishing "why things are" for any given locational or factional status quo, a large part of "moving forward" should not be stuck in attempting to fill out holes in the past. A large majority of the community does not find these holes very significant in the grand scheme of things, and when they are gratuitous enough get patched up anyway by community outcry. It is a very small likelihood that filling out faction/location history will actually do anything in the short or long term (proven with Venus and Skrell). These are things that seem vastly unproductive to write, as these are things that would not be tangible in their effect on the game world as ongoing arcs and present-day worldbuilding both generally work. In addition, while I have no problem with someone filling out or rewriting my previous work with trying to lay groundwork in past generations about pre-Expansion age humanity - it's minimalistic as-is on purpose. It needs to stay that way because a lot of the things that did happen before and after the Great Spess War with the Coalition aren't very significant to the in-game "today". The politics are very different now that the Solarian Alliance is much bigger than it was - but it is also too big to even support itself now, so it has new problems to deal with. Rewriting old human history to be mildly different will not change or recontextualize how much on borrowed time the Solarian Alliance is. It seems you're not really focused on a minimalistic, productive approach with this subject, and it kind of lends to reason that any other approach with trying to rewrite history will only annoy players and waste time, your time especially since rewriting history without an aim for it to be in-context with how things are in the lore present will not be fruitful whatsoever. Just imagine if a Tajara lore deputy slot opened up and someone applied under the basis of wanting to fill out history 'gaps' that may or may not exist: it's not interesting of a goal. It really isn't. Everyone dwells on the issues and intrigue of "now" and "in the future." Dwelling on the past is universally considered a bad thing if there isn't a focus on how it adds context to now. 2. Regarding Dominia. I'm not really seeing why Dominia is being targeted right now? It has received many many notable improvements during the era of Borya (credit primarily to Schwann, of course! bless his workhorse heart), it's an otherwise interesting faction of complete assholes and that is a subject of politics. I've seen feedback supporting this and it is a bit wild to me; in this pursuit of liberalizing everything you will run out of ideological enemies to "liberalization." Dominia should stay as is, we need that "haughty asshole faction" because as I've seen so far, a lot of interesting roleplay and conflict has resulted in the synthesis of prior management decisions. If anything, Dominia was already made liberalized and far more accessible. Literally look at the amount of people who play Dominians now (Schwann and Borya must've done something right, yeah?!), why does this need to change again? Contrast with Diona, which no one plays because there is no reason to, they are not interesting. Dominia, conversely, is interesting in its current iteration. You seem to want to crush down what Dominia is right now for some otherwise vague reason. You claim it is not interesting, but there is a notable amount of Dominian characters that cycle in and out and end up being played on the server. Either this is because you have an agenda to change up Dominia and you are willing to ignore certain facts, or you are not as in-touch and educated about the issue of Dominia (and why people find it interesting enough to even play it) as you should be if you want to be critical about it. I haven't seen any discussion about this, and I view it as a major issue of policy to have to point out. 3. Regarding Elyra. You're not really wrong about all of this but with the above issues I'm not exactly confident you would be able to make it very interesting. Your focus on history rather than a focus on fleshing out culture and interesting character ideas is the deal-breaker here. 4. Regarding the Earth map. I have to be rude-sounding for a moment, but "God, who cares" is my response to this. Maps do not really matter, they are filler. Filler objectives are not goals. Filler is not incredibly interesting and does not push any team into the direction of practically accomplishing anything. It is world-building but only for the sake of it. Having a new map v3.7 of planet Earth when there are have been many unnecessary 'realiztic' revisions should absolutely not be the priority of any up-and-coming lore developer. It will have absolutely nothing to do with the upcoming King of the World arc, so why is this even mentioned as a goal, honestly? 5. Player feedback and goals in general. And transparency. Easily the most concerning thing to me is that you haven't really accounted for or mentioned player feedback in this application and how you plan on handling it. Since player feedback is a subject of major importance, it surprises me that "feedback" is only really mentioned once in your original post, which I consider an immediate application sin, followed by ding sound and immediate pretentious observation on my part and a deliberate misunderstanding of movie themes just to make a gotcha comment. Reference to how awful CinemaSins is aside, I'm not exactly certain of how you actually plan to approach the inevitable feedback that would arise from creating and putting to action your own changes, if it can be called that, as I mentioned prior criticisms above anyway. How about I mention goals? Goals, goals, goals. We all have them. Some short-term, some long-term. The position of human lore developer - rather than deputy - has to concern itself with a lot of long-term foresight. I would know, I've made a fair few mistakes in this regard for not prioritizing some issues properly and my work back then absolutely suffered for it, because I wasn't motivated to do anything due to my lack of priority set for the goals I had after the previous short and long-term ones were completed. I would not want to see the same mistakes repeated again of any human lore developer. I want to see them have consistent focus, drive and the ability to do things with an unrivalled wrath that bulldozes any bureaucratic obstacles in their path. You don't really seem to have much planned apart from several short-term objectives, this is good for giving people the impression you want to do some things, but for how long is this going to be, exactly? Having a lot of short-term goals and the will to execute them sounds like excellent attributes of a lore deputy, but not of the lore head of a specific lore department itself. Likewise, the subject of transparency. I constantly get the feeling there's something being missed, i.e. what you've written isn't all you want to do. Normally, this is a non-issue, but much of what you covered of wanting to change or do are either non-issues or not really significant to a grander agenda of making the human-centric worlds more interesting and adding culture and life to the fictional galaxy. Being up-front about what you want to do is, once again, rather important. Historically there have been fairly lengthy interim periods where lore developers in nondescript positions idle, don't do anything, literally nothing at all for months and occupy a staff position that could otherwise be handed off to someone else more ambitious to be able to actually do something with the volunteer job they applied for. The impression so far is that I don't know if you want to just complete what is listed above, or just wing it as time goes on (that's not a good thing to hear or say, by the way), or finally, you have things planned that are Super Top Secret™ which I don't think anyone will appreciate. 6. egg This is mostly my conclusion. I'm not opposed to you being a deputy in the near future, but I think you lack certain ambitions required of a team lead. Much of your proposed ideas don't really have tangible structure or purpose either, and everything else "Good" you had to say was essentially already expected of any applicant to say anyway; it's good (but also already expected) to say you will work in tandem with the other teams, because the practical answer if you want the job is 'yes', saying 'no' is the immediate wrong answer.
The7thLain Posted August 10, 2020 Author Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, Scheveningen said: 1. Regarding history. I believe that the way things are now in terms of history is woefully inadequate because it gives so little context to what is happening now. There is no real "why" for a lot of human lore right now, other than "megacorporations corrupt" and "phoron exists." Why is SolGov falling apart? When did it start falling apart? How do we make this feel impactful in the game other than people just like joking about it? I'm not wanting to over-write two-hundred years of human history, but when you have other species with multiple entire articles on a timespan smaller than fifty years, and humanity has maybe a few paragraphs on the entire history of the Solar Alliance summed up in a timeline article. There is no context right now aside from megacorporations buying things and NT supporting Tau Ceti independence. As for playerbase gripes, or lack thereof, will anyone be opposed to SolGov getting more lore? Sure its on borrowed time, but it's still here and is going to be here well into the NBT until it collapses sometime in the King of the World Arc. Why not make the literal main player and subject of the upcoming chapter more fleshed out as an entity, give people context for their players and for the events they take place in by posing the SolGov as more than just "totalitarian juggernaut that most of humanity belongs to." What is SolGov? Not as a place with all these wonderful opportunities for cultures and characters, but as a country and government entity, how do you explain why SolGov is? 3 hours ago, Scheveningen said: 2. Regarding Dominia. I understand that the updates have been very productive and have made the country more accessible, or at least popular, but I feel there is a false equivalency of people playing something more and it actually being played well we have a lot of people who try to play Security or a lot of people who attempt to play antags, or people who try to play x-y-z, but that doesn't particularly mean that they do them justice or are good at portraying the character relative to the lore. Ask yourself this, with some notable few exceptions, has the average Dominian character being played on the server changed at all from where it was a year ago? Is there anything notable that you can point to and say across the player culture that has actually changed from the old Dominian lore to the new Dominian lore? They are still self-righteous nationalist religious zealots, they still very much feel the same to RP with, in my experience, and they just seem boring, again with a few exceptions. The new lore is nice, I enjoy it, however, having an "asshole faction," just doesn't make sense to me at all. Why just have a group of people that are confrontational and troublesome enough just because we "need" it, when its not doing the job. Being taller than 6'0, starting fights, verbal or physical, with people at the slightest offense and cussing out IPC's at every given chance while shoving "goddess" into every sentence is not interesting RP, its repetitive, boring, and lifeless. A noble, honour-bound faction shouldn't be assholes just because its convenient, they should feel realistic and believable relative to the other cultures that we have and have fleshed out as good examples of what human lore can do, Eridani, some of the Frontier Worlds like Himeo and Crosk or more Solar-influenced worlds like New Hai Phong or even Biesel itself. 3 hours ago, Scheveningen said: 3. Regarding Elyra Building a culture is important, and I feel that its needed in Elyra as well, but cultures spring up as reactions to events and changes in ways of life along with environmental factors. We have the environments, but we don't have again, the why for many places in Elyra. We don't even know how Elyra got its independence other than they rallied around a general and broke away. Did they fight a war? Was the secession peaceful? How did SolGov react? The entire culture of the Coalition of Colonies exists as opposed to that of SolGov and exists as a result of a war that we have basically zero information on, but the same war influenced Elyra's own independence as a nation, and by that sense, the cultures within. I agree that Elyra needs to be fleshed out, as right now Elyra lacks a foundation aside from arbitrary allusions to modern-day middle-eastern nations combined with utopian influences. I want to help build that foundation via a historical narrative that influences the culture of Elyra, something that I will work with my team in creating. I would be a team lead, but much of being the team lead in my opinion is not just working with my own ideas, but coordinating and developing those of my team members and helping them integrate with the greater objective at hand, in this case, being updating Elyra. 3 hours ago, Scheveningen said: 4. Regarding the Earth map. Yes, I agree, the Earth map itself and my comments around it are a bit of a meme and very minor in comparison to everything else. The Earth map however, is less just the map, and more an example of allegory to a lot of the still outdated lore that still resides on various wiki-pages that has not been brought up to speed with current events, and well, as we go into the NBT, we need to be as updated as we can and brought to grips with the gravity of the Solar Alliance's collapse. This is such a huge occasion, that we need to give it all of our attention when it occurs, so there is very much a need to update existing lore to be ready for when that happens, so we do not need to go back writing events that happened years or even decades ago to explain how the new events will impact the galaxy at large. 3 hours ago, Scheveningen said: 5. Player feedback and goals in general. And transparency. Player feedback is important, and is a given in my view. The reason I didn't mention it is because I thought that such a thing would be implied. In the same spirit of , "because the practical answer if you want the job is 'yes', saying 'no' is the immediate wrong answer," as you stated in your conclusion, if you want to work in a community, then not listening to the community is the immediate wrong answer. Community feedback is what drives the entire game. We are a community, and I love the Aurora as that community, so I will undoubtedly listen to it and hear what it has to say. However, lore decisions are made not just as a result of not just the creator asking the community for feedback, but also the collective decision-making process of the loreteam and sometimes the Loremaster(s). Hearing what the playerbase thinks, is essential, and while it may definitely go against what the sentiments of the lore team are at times, its still important to take into account. I will not let myself and my decisions be put at the mercy of popular opinion, but at the same time I will acknowledge what is being said and let it be an influence in my own decisions and thoughts that I give my team. As for goals, yes, I have many short term goals, the primary ones revolving around the NBT and King of the World Arc, as I have mentioned numerous times in this thread already. Because King of the World and the NBT will change not just Human Lore, but lore as a whole with a focus on human, its exceptionally hard to really plan for the long term, as I am not privy to how the SolGov is planned to collapse, or what will happen in its wake, because, that lore, or at least the outline of it, is already conceived and probably even written down somewhere. Because I am not yet on the team, I do not know what any of these details or even concepts are, and because KotW its literally going to turn the largest entity in human space on its head, I cannot really say that I have long-term plans outside of vague inklings, because all are relative to what happens in the upcoming short-term, a short term that is of an undefined length, it could be anywhere from weeks to months, and a short-term that I, once again, do not know about except for what anyone else not on the lore team knows already. I am in the dark about the huge changes coming to the galaxy and humanity that will effect the decisions I make once in the team. I can see that having no long-term goals may give the impression that I am not being transparent with you or the community as a whole, but I want to let everyone know that right now my intentions with the lore are these in short: 1. Update the lore and get it up to speed with KotW/NBT, this could mean anything from adding history to more locations or Humanity at large, to further expanding on neglected or content starved areas and the cultures within them, or writing in more effects about how current events impact the various planets and populations across humanity. We need more context and gravity given to these modern times. We have mini-events on the phoron shortage almost every other day at this point, so why don't we have more lore on the galactic ramifications of it outside of two news articles. 2/3. Work with the rest of the lore teams and loremasters to make the King of the World chapter as best as it possibly can be, be that through preparation or actively contributing to the projected events. 2/3. Address the problems I have already listed that I find with Dominia and Elyra, Elyra probably taking precedence over Dominia depending on the sentiments and initiative in the loreteam. 4. Incorporate new things/locations/populations into human lore after the NBT and King of the World, all somewhat dependent on what happens in King of the World. When this will happen depends on how soon the NBT and its subsequent galactic lore gets here, something that I will freely admit I don't know right now. 5. If we have more time to do more things that aren't listed here in between the things that are, I will attempt to pursue those as well. These are my priorities as a lore developer but they are not the only ideas or visions that that matter within the human loreteam or community at large. 3 hours ago, Scheveningen said: 6. egg I appreciate hearing what you have to say on my application and I have taken your critiques into account with how I will proceed as a human lore developer/maintainer if I do indeed get the position. Thank you for taking time out of your day to give your thoughts to me, as its a new perspective that I wasn't entirely aware of before ^-^ Edited August 10, 2020 by TheBurninSherman fixed numbering on the goals list
Scheveningen Posted August 10, 2020 Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) I will say, to your credit that it isn't your fault for answering what was expected to questions that are criminally one-sided and obvious, though. It's a silly thing of any community that people find themselves asking one-dimensional questions. I do wish I saw this sort of insight in your original post though, call that hesitance with the initial impression since I don't know you particularly well! Still, I'm less hesitant about the idea of you being staff since you put a lot more thought into your response with the various issues brought up. Not gonna reply to it specifically here since, honestly just the fact you put thought into addressing the specific concerns in-depth was enough, but the conversation regarding details can continue later. I don't want to bloat this thread on my own accord. You dissuaded half of my concerns which is nice. That aside, neutral is my weigh-in now. Changing my mind is legal, I assume. Edited August 10, 2020 by Scheveningen
Mofo1995 Posted August 18, 2020 Posted August 18, 2020 Hello! After over a week of deliberation I have decided that I will not be denying this application. Spoiler Welcome aboard!
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